Management 350
Summary of Article
4/15/13

Cloud Computing

The article I read was called “Cloud computing for small businesses: it’s time to follow the herd”. The article starts off by explaining the basics of cloud computing and what it is capable of doing. It goes into detail how cloud computing is extremely helpful to small businesses and can save them time and money. The article went into depth about the types of cloud services starting with the infrastructure (IaaS). This supplies virtual hardware, instead of being in an office the employees can access their data via the internet. The article talked about other cloud computing services such as Platform and Software. The most important for small businesses according to the article is (SaaS) which provides the business with software and programmers that can be run remotely. It’s a short installation process and businesses don’t have to worry about how their hardware will cope with the application. After the discussion on types of cloud services the article talked about potential negatives that can come along with cloud computing. Some of them being data security, controlling your information, flexibility, and choosing a supplier. Although these can be problems they can easily be avoided by taking some time to do the proper research on how cloud computing can help out a small business. The main benefits the article stated associated with cloud computing include: increasing efficiency, time-management, remote working potential, and saving physical space. Some important questions that a business should ask before they choose a supplier for cloud computing are: Is the cloud service provider stable and trustworthy, with a reputation to lose? Are the conditions of contract reasonable and fair to you? Will it benefit your business? Then went on to state that cloud computing is predicted to increase by 30% in the year of 2013. The article also gave specific examples how it can save a business money, one example is how farmers have to spend 90 minutes per day creating manual data